Chapter 5

Problem-Based Ideation: Finding and

Solving Customers’ Problems
TOPICS
 Gathering the Problems

• Sources for needs and problems of

stakeholders:
– Internal records
– Direct inputs from technical and marketing
departments
– Problem analysis
– Scenario analysis
 Internal Records

• Daily or weekly sales call reports, finding

from customer or technical service
departments, and tips from resellers.
• Sales files and warranty/complaint files
– Toll-free complaints number
– Complaints website
• Existing data from research.

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 Example
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG1jtq
Ay8Uc

Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner :

•attached to the shower head; it sprays cleaning solution
throughout the tub/shower area effortlessly by
pushbutton.
 Direct Inputs from Technical and Marketing
Departments

• Most of them have spent time with

customers and end users.

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 Problem Analysis

• A method of direct user contact.

• A simple compilation of user problems.
• Problems are not product specific
• Examples:
– What problems do you have with your hair?
(NOT product specific)
– A person needs or wants from a shampoo
(product specific)

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 Problem Analysis

• Problem analysis procedure

– Determine product or activity category
for study.
– Identify heavy users.
– Gather set of problems associated
with product category.
– Sort and rank the problems according
to severity or importance.

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 Problem Analysis

Methodologies
– Experts
– Published sources
– Stakeholder contacts
• Interviewing
• Focus groups (qualitative research technique)
• Observation of product in use
• Role playing

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 Example
• James Dyson, who was dissatisfied with the
performance of commercially available
vacuum cleaners and set out to create a
better one.
• Dyson’s innovation was guided by a quick
but thorough problem analysis that identified
several points of improvement.
http://worldkings.org/news/world-best-aca
demy/worldkings-world-best-academy-dy
son-united-kingdom-the-best-selling-vacu
um-brand-in-great-britain
 Example
• After five years and about 5,000
prototypes, he created the Dual
Cyclone bagless vacuum
cleaner which as the world’s
first bagless vacuum cleaner.

• James Dyson and his Dual

Cyclone Vacuum Cleaner
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V835_ZI7
4Xs
 Example
Domino’s Pizza
•A real unmet need was identified in the market:
quick, reliable pizza delivery service.
•Late-night customers, in fact, were satisfied with
an average-quality pizza, as long as it was
delivered fast and hot.
•Domino’s promise: “thirty minutes or it’s free.”
•Later, competition in the pizza business had
heated up; as many competitors were getting
into the delivery business. Fast and hot was no
longer enough.
 Example
Domino’s Pizza
•Domino’s focus groups found that customers had lots to
say about the
taste, most of it negative.
•With this, company assigned a product team to develop
a new, better-tasting pizza.
•Marketing employees used focus groups and other
research methods to capture the voice of the customer;
the food engineers developed a totally new recipe to meet
the specifications.
•Over a dozen different sauces and crusts were tried, as
well as dozens of types of cheese.
 Typical Questions for Problem Analysis
Focus Groups
• What is the real problem here – what if the
product category did not exist?
• What are current attitudes and behaviors of
focus group members toward the product
category?
• What product attributes and benefits do the
focus group members want?
• What are their dissatisfactions, problems, and
unfilled needs?
• What changes occurring in their lifestyles are
relevant to the product category?

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 Examples: Observation and Role Playing in
Problem Analysis

• Carmakers send their designers out to parking

lots to watch people and how they interact with
their cars.
• Honda got insights as to how large the
passenger compartments of their SUVs should
be by observing U.S. families.
• Bausch and Lomb generated ideas on making
contact lenses more comfortable by getting pairs
of executives to act out skits in which they
played the eyeball and the contact lens.

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 Gathering the Problems
Concept generation (methods and results)
– Experts
– Published sources
– Stakeholder contacts Gathering the
• Interviewing problems
• Focus groups (FIND problems)
• Observation of product in use
• Role playing

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 Scenario Analysis

• The scenario approach would be best

suited to the anticipation/solution of "future"
problems requiring new-to-the-world
solutions.
• First, paint a scenario; second, study if for
problems and needs; third, evaluate those
problems and begin trying to solve the most
important ones.

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 Scenario Analysis
• Two forms of scenarios:
– (1)Extend study: extending the present to see
what it will look like in the future,
• Example: Identify the current scenario, if the
current scenarios continues for the next few
years (eg, 20 years), predict the potential
problems. Propose the solutions.

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 Scenario Analysis
• Two forms of scenarios:
– (2) Leap study: leaping into the future to pick a
period that is then described.
• Example: For the next 20 years, predict the
future potential problems. Propose the solutions.

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 Solving the Problem

• Group creativity is more effective than individual

problem-solving effort.
• Brainstorming: One person presents a thought,
another person reacts to it, another person reacts
to the reaction, and so on.
– It utilizes the synergy of groups to elicit in-depth
problem discussions or analysis.
• Any weaknesses?

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 Brainstorming

Brainstorming
• Some of the factors that may inhibit truthful
responses from individuals-it still suffers
from the problems that result from
"sequential participation" and fear of
criticism/disapproval from panel members.

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 Solving the Problem

• Rules for brainstorming session:

– No criticism allowed.
– Freewheeling
– Nothing should slow the session down.
– Combination and improvement of ideas.

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 Brainstorming Techniques
• Brainstorming circle
– It forces the conversational sequence around a circle,
and each person expands or modifies the idea
expressed by the prior person in the circle.
• Reverse brainstorming
– It concentrates on a product’s weaknesses or
problems.
• Tear-down
– Participants must find something wrong with the
previous idea and get talking turn.

Appendix B (page 517)

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 Electronic Brainstorming

• Overcomes many drawbacks of brainstorming

(only one can talk at a time, fear of contributing,
“social loafing”).
• Participants sit at networked terminals.
• Contributions are projected on screen, and also
recorded (so no errors are made in transcription).
• Can be done over multiple sites via computer
linkups or videoconferencing.
• Can handle larger size groups (into the
hundreds).

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 Online Communities
• An online community can be defined as any
group that interacts using a communications
medium such as online social networking.

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 Disciplines Panel

• A disciplines panel is comprised of experts

from any and all, disciplines relevant to the
problem under analysis.
– Example: A panel on new methods of packaging fresh
vegetables might include representatives from home
economics, physics, nutrition, medicine, ecology,
canning technology, marketing, plastics, chemistry,
biology, industrial engineering, agriculture, botany, and
agronomy. The panel may also include outside experts.